Contemporary Dance: Naomi Funaki + Jared Alexander feat. Ayodele Casel, Sidra Bell Dance New York, and It’s Showtime NYC!

Naomi Funaki is a NYC based award winning tap dance artist from Tokyo, Japan. She was selected as a winner of Princess Grace Award 2023 as a performing artist and named Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” 2024 as a choreographer and performer. She has worked for Ayodele Casel, Caleb Teicher & Company, Music From The Sole and Dorrance Dance. She is also an alumni of The School at Jacob’s Pillow for their tap dance program of 2017. Other favorite performance credits include Tap Family Reunion, Fall For Dance (New York City Center), Vail Dance Festival, Dance Against Cancer (Lincoln Center), and Ayodele Casel and Arturo O’Farrill (Joyce Theater), The MET Gala, YouTube Brandcast Event (Radio City Music Hall), Works & Process (Guggenheim) , “Infinity” in Tokyo. And “Chasing Magic “ (Joyce Theatre).

Jared Alexander is a New York City based Tap Artist, Beat Maker and Curiosity inspired Creative. Alexander has worked under Ayodele Casel and Torya Beard for multiple projects including: Rooted (2024) an All Arts documentary, Artists at the Center, City Center (2023), Rooted Tour (2023), Chasing Magic (2022-2024) at The Joyce Theater, Spoleto Dance Festival & McCarter Theatre; MET Gala (2022), Fords Gala (2022),Bordeaux, France; Warner Bros., and Little Island Summer Dance Festival (2021 & 2022). Jared has also worked under Caleb Teicher & Co. in Bzzz (2023) at The Joyce Theatre, and Artists at the Center (2023) in collaboration with Naomi Funaki. Alexander presented his own work along side Tomoe “Beasty” Carr at City Center for Artists at the Center (2023).

Ayodele Casel is an award-winning and critically acclaimed tap dancer and choreographer named one of The New York Times’ “biggest breakout stars of 2019.” Born in the Bronx and raised in Puerto Rico, her practice centers highly narrative works rooted in expressions of selfhood, culture and legacy. Her projects include her concert and Bessie Award-winning film Chasing Magic, her one-woman show While I Have the Floor, and her theatrical and film series Diary of a Tap Dancer. She serves as a tap choreographer for the Broadway revival of Funny Girl, which garnered her a 2022 Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Choreography. A frequent New York City Center collaborator, she created an interactive show for their inaugural “On the Move” five-borough tour and is one of their 2023 featured “Artists at the Center.” Her collaboration with Grammy award-winning Latin jazz composer and pianist Arturo O’Farrill is hailed by The New York Times as “next level” and “thrilling.”

Sidra Bell is the founder of Sidra Bell Dance New York and a choreographer and educator who is currently a Master Lecturer at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and a recent artist-in-residence at Harvard University. Bell is also the founder and creative director of the award-winning MODULE Laboratory, a New York City based immersive platform for movement and theater artists. Bell has won several awards, including a First Prize for Choreography at the Solo Tanz Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany, and a National Dance Project Production Award from the New England Foundation for the Arts. Bell has created over 100 works, notably for BODYTRAFFIC, Ailey II, The Juilliard School, Whim W'Him, among many others. She was the first Black female choreographer commissioned to create work for New York City Ballet, where she created two works for film and the Lincoln Center stage (Fall Fashion Gala 2021 and Innovators & Icons Program).

The mission of It's Showtime NYC! (IST) is twofold. First, to cultivate creative excellence within the next generation of street/club dancers through advocacy, performance opportunities, direct instruction, professional development, and creative collaboration. Second, to advocate for and highlight the recognition of street/club dances as seminal American artforms and folkloric movement cultures in the performing arts sector. IST, founded in 2015, is a program of the Bronx-based non-profit organization Dancing in the Streets. For their performance at Bryant Park, they will perform choreographer and IST Artistic and Program Director Cal Hunt's Movement Therapy (with a special solo performance from Hunt), as well as IST's Battle! Hip Hop in Armor! (except).

National Dance Institute is a non-profit arts education organization that brings children together through inclusive, joyful dance and music programs. Founded by legendary dancer Jacques d’Amboise, NDI has impacted the lives of thousands of children worldwide for nearly fifty years. At Bryant Park, NDI children will perform beloved repertory choreography and a sneak peek of our June Event of the Year, "Earth's Song."